South Korea Revises the Permitted Import Countries and Sanitation Requirements for Livestock Products

Meal kit containing meat is classified in the livestock product category. Latvia and Slovakia are newly permitted for exporting dairy products to South Korea. The sterilized processed meat’s sterilization standard is modified.

On November 24, 2021, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) outlined the latest version of Regulation on Permitted Import Countries (Regions) and Sanitation Requirements of Livestock Products¹. The modifications are as below:

1. New Livestock Product Type Subject to Import Sanitation Assessment

On August 10, 2021, the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act² specifies the meal kits containing meat(식육간편조리세트) as a new type of livestock product. Soon after, the authority also classify the meal kits containing meat under the livestock product category in this Regulation following the amendments in the upstream act.

Therefore, the present livestock product category contain the below foods:

Ham, sausage, bacon, dried meat, seasoned meat (seasoned meat, natural casing, pulverized processed meat products, processed rib products), processed edible meat extract products , animal oil (edible beef tallow, edible lard), and meal kits containing meat.

2. Permitting New Countries to Export Dairy Products to South Korea

Two countries are added to the positive list of dairy product import country. The countries and their allowable product items are:

Country	Dairy Products
Latvia	Processed milk, concentrated milk, milk cream, butter, cheese, powdered milk, milk serum, ice cream.
Slovakia	Milk, processed milk, fermented milk, milk cream, butter, cheese, powdered milk, milk serum, lactose, milk protein hydrolysate products, ice cream.

3. Amending Sterilization Standard

The sterilization standard of sterilized processed meat products is modified to keep aligned with the standard under Food Code³.

The new standard is specified as:

Processing the product to an internal temperature of at least 120℃ for 4 minutes or processing the product with a method to reach at least an equal result.

Implementation

The regulation came into effect along with its issuance. Nevertheless, the provision about “meal kits containing meat” will be effective on January 1, 2022.